What's the difference between a definition and an etymology?

A definition tells

us what a word means and how it's used in our own time. An etymology tells

us where a word came from (often, but not always, from another language) and

what it used to mean.

For example, according to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English

Language, the definition of the word disaster is "an occurrence causing

widespread destruction and distress; a catastrophe" or "a grave misfortune."

But the etymology of the same word takes us back to a time when people

commonly blamed great misfortunes on the influence of the stars. Disaster

first appeared in English in the late 16th century, just in time for

Shakespeare to use the word in the play King Lear. It arrived by way of the

Old Italian word disastro, meaning "unfavorable to one's stars."

This older, astrological sense of disaster becomes easier to understand when

we study its Latin root word

, astrum,

which also is part of our modern "star" word astronomy. With the negative

Latin prefix dis-

("apart") added to astrum ("star"), the word (in Latin, Old Italian, and

Middle French) conveyed the idea that a catastrophe could be traced to the

"evil influence of a star or planet" (a definition that the dictionary tells

us is now "obsolete

").

IS THE ETYMOLOGY OF A WORD ITS TRUE DEFINITION?

Not at all, though people sometimes try to make this argument.

The word etymology is derived from the Greek word etymon

, meaning "the true

sense of a word." But in fact the original meaning of a word is often

different from its contemporary definition.

The meanings of many words have changed over time, and older senses of a

word may grow uncommon or disappear entirely from everyday use. Disaster,

for instance, no longer means the "evil influence of a star or planet," just

as consider no longer means "to observe the stars." Language is insanely

complex. Unraveling that complexity involves understanding why we use the

words we do. Some uses include the following:

• Instinctively interpreting a word you have never heard before.
• Creating a new word to describe an original idea or concept that hasn't

been given its own word yet.

• Communication across language barriers.
• Comprehending older documents.
• Translating between dialects and understanding the reason for different

connotations in different cultures.

• Word games and puzzles for children and adults.
• Creating an artificial language for fun.
• Also, the more of the system you understand, the less you need to

memorize things by brute force. It is easier to remember how things connect

than remember each individual connection. Word origin and history is part of

this.

• Take home message

If a word's etymology is not the same as its definition, why should we care

at all about word histories? Well, for one thing, understanding how words

have developed can teach us a great deal about our cultural history. In

addition, studying the histories of familiar words can help us deduce the

meanings of unfamiliar words, thereby enriching our vocabularies. Finally,

word stories are often both entertaining and thought provoking.

Source – https://www.thoughtco.com/etymology-word-stories-1692654

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